Study Visit to Anstey Wallpaper Company

Thursday 7^th February 2013

I managed to get in contact with Anstey Wallpaper Company to arrange a study visit to the factory. A lady Called Sabrina replied to me with a date, which was 7^th Feb 2013 would be available to visit. 

Thursday 7^th Feb soon came round and I was excited to go.

After driving to the factory in Loughborough. Myself and Laura went to reception, filled in our visitors passes and waited for Sabrina to come meet us. When Sabrina came to us she walked us to their design studio and kindly offered us a drink while we discussed what we would like out of the visit and she described what she would be able to show us. Also she was asking us questions about our work that we were completing for our final year. I mentioned to her that I had chosen to base my theme on the circus with a floral twist and she loved that idea, also I mentioned that I was struggling to find products by artist/designs who have completed work of this theme. Sabrina said she remembered a company she had worked with that printed a wallpaper of a beautiful circus theme and they were called Mokum. I looked this up as soon as I got home and found the circus print wallpaper.  This is the Wallpaper and it was designed by Catherine Martin for Mokum.

Sabrina started by describing to us about the design studio and how the designers and colourist there are not there to design wallpaper but they play a crucial part in providing a service on advising on contemporary and traditional design and colour trends. They offer support regarding new product developments, e.g. substrates, inks and printing techniques. The stylist may also act on the client’s behalf on any development projects they wish to pursue. The team can also design a complete coordinating package using their experience and knowledge of all the markets and the client’s specific customer’s market sector.

They had the key equipment needed for design and specialist software to develop designs from the initial scan to working up of a source document, including manipulating the scale and repeat, through technical separation and development of the colour palette.

There was another room attached to the design studio, which was for hand sampling. The designers and colourist would use this area to sample smaller scale samples of a clients desired design and sample it with different techniques and colourways, inks, gloss, metalics and pearl which can give a very wide variety of looks.  Once the design is complete and the client is satisfied with the look and style the final colourway will facilitate the handover of collection to the production.

This machine was in the testing room and is where they use the print cylinders to test they are printing correctly and colour test.

Next Sabrina took us to the part of the factory that is hand processed. We looked at the block printing area.  This was the first known method of wallpaper printing and takes a skilled person with a lot of dedication and experience to complete.  Technology today has failed to produce any method that matches the tactility of hand block printing. Also in recent years there have been limited developments whereby other more modern materials such as linoleum, plastic and metal have become available, however these material are more stable than wood, can twist, warp and crack.

The look of block printed papers are however beautiful as we seen in the factory, but these take a long time to produce being such a slow process and very cost effective.

I really can understand why it is such an expensive paper as when you see the quality of the print it is fantastic and the texture is beautiful.

Next we seen the block printed flocking, this was introduced around the late 17^th century, possibly inspired by the flocked canvas hangings that were popular in Holland. An adhesive will be applied to the paper that is very tacky and resemble white gloss paint; this can be tinted using pigments to match the colour of flock being applied to add to the dramatic look. Once the paper is coated in the glue and tinted if necessary the length of wallpaper is drawn across a canvas bed where the flock fibers are scattered, this is normally done by hand. Then wooden canes or battens continuously beat the underside of the canvas bed to make the fibers rub together and jump up and down creating static electricity enabling the flock to stand on end creating the key look to the flock. The paper used for flock is heavier because the flock is heavy and a standard paper weight wouldn’t hold this weight and the paper has to withstand a lot of abuse during the beating stage and thinner, lighter paper would tear easier. This method takes around 2-3 days for the glue to dry for each flock colour.

We then went on to see the Pan (through) printing. This method was introduced around the mid 1500’s as a means of evenly colour-washing backgrounds for block printing onto. It is a process that has a steel sheet that has holes drilled into it to create a thin strie stripe as the paper is drawn by motor underneath it. Cutting an elongated channel creates a wider stripe. The tray is continually filled with water-based inks that are released through the sieve-like plate underneath the trough, which sits above and almost touches the face of the paper. The paper is drawn through at a controlled speed, ensuring an even and consistent distribution of the ink. Once the paper is printed it is festooned onto a track suspended from the ceiling and allowed to dry. The inks have to be fully cured before the paper can be taken down and re rolled, ready to be put through the process again for the next colour, or moved onto another process.

We then went onto see the Surface Print machine. This method was introduced around 1839. It continued as the only mechanised means by which to print wallpaper for the next 100 years. It was responsible for making wallpaper available for the masses and it’s immediate success marginalised block printing.

It is the oldest of the mechanised processes and is predecessor to the relief printing Flexo machine. It has a large drum cylinder with print stations spaced around the circumference. The print cylinders are made of a very hard ‘ceramic’ type rubber and the area that you don’t want printing is cut out, leaving the printing surface ‘proud’ on the cylinder. The inks used are water based and transferred via a rotating woolen or felt blanket. The blanket is soaked at one end whilst the other is touching the back of the print cylinder. As the conveyor belt type blanket rotates it picks up the ink from the tray and delivers it onto the back of the print cylinder; the ink is then impressed directly onto the paper as it is rotated. The amount of ink transferred onto the cylinder is determined by the absorbency of the blanket. The more porous the blanket, the more ink, the harder the blanket, the less ink. Also as the ink is water-based it is still wet as it reaches the next part of the print station therefore the application of wet ink applied over wet ink creates an effect where the colours lightly bleed into one another, giving a very soft visual finish.

We then went onto see the Flat-Bed Screen Printing (Silk Screen Printing)

This method was invented in the early to mid 1940’s, later being introduced in Britain from America in the late 40’s. The screen is a rectangular frame with a fine polyester nylon woven mesh stretched across it. The screen needs coating photosensitive polymer, the stencil of the design is then placed flat onto the mesh before the screen is photo-exposed.  The exposure hardens the polymer into an impenetrable lacquer. The area that was masked by the stencil remains fluid and once the screen is washed the stenciled area comes off becoming open mesh. This then allows printing inks through. The screen is placed face down onto a long flat table that has a length of wallpaper laid tight against it from one end to the other. It can print up to 9 wallpaper rolls at a time.  Thick water-based inks are applied to the back of the screen and are drawn across the mesh using a rubber squeegee forcing the ink through the open areas on the mesh in the shape of the design. Once the colour is laid the screen is lifted and moved along the next position, where the process is repeated. It’s important that the inks are allowed to dry fully before any subsequent screens are placed on top. This prevents the screen potentially picking up previous colours laid down and also smudging the design on the wallpaper. To try and prevent this it is normal that they print every alternate screen, before going back and filling in the gaps when the inks have dried. It is a very labour intensive and demands constant vigilance making it an expensive process aimed towards the top end of the market.

Here you can see how many screen there are

These are the hand screen print tables.

This machine above is for screen printing but whereas on the hand screen printing table you move the screen it's self along, with this machine the screen stays stabilised and the wallpaper is attached to what is like a conveyor belt and that moves the paper along.

Next we seen the Rotary Screen Printing method which was introduced in the early 1950’s. The machine would have an in-line configuration with upwards of seven or eight print stations available, each printing one colour. The cylindrical printing screen itself is a very fine ‘honey combed’ type mesh. The screen is produced by photochemical means, in that a photopolymer coating is applied to the surface of the screen before photographic exposure causes it to harden on the mesh. Therefore to create the design it is just a question of ‘masking off’ the mesh with a stencil in the desired shape. The areas of the mesh that have been hardened will not allow the ink through. Therefore the ink is squeezed, under pressure from the inside of the cylinder mesh. The inks used in this process are quite opaque, and rich colours are achievable. It is important that the ink is fully dry before the paper reaches the next print station. Hot air dryers between each print station do this. This method does have the benefit of being cheaper, due to being a continuous print process.

Next we saw the Flexographic Printing machine. It was introduced into Britain in the early 1960’s. The print stations are evenly spread around the outside of a large cylinder drum that carries the paper face out around it. The ink is transferred from the ink tray to the print roller via an ‘anilux’ roller, the purpose of which is to both even out and determine how much ink is transferred onto the cylinder. A deeply cut anilux roller will transfer more ink than a shallow cut one. As the print cylinder rotates the ink is transferred directly onto the paper as it is squeezed against the large cylinder drum. This process will readily accept the use of either water-based or solvent-based inks, although like gravure, solvent based inks are considered more stable for print processes, also more environmentally friendly as the factory collects the fumes from the solvent and then burns them to enable this to heat the factory. Flexo printing is very versatile; it is used extensively in the packaging industry, for printing such things as plastic bags, crisp packets, cardboard boxes, etc.

The Gravure Printing machine was next, it was introduced around 1954 as a development of photochemically etching a design onto a copper plate that was then wrapped around a base. Once engraved the cylinder is electroplated with a thin layer of chrome to create a heard wearing coating for durability. This is necessary as copper is very soft and if it was not protected in some way it would be very easily damaged during the printing process. The benefit of using a gravure printing machine is the ability to print fine tonal work and graduation of colour using a single cylinder. This graduation of colour, governed by the depth and width of each individual cell, can be from a solid colour through to anything as subtle as 20% tint.  Combine this with the fact that a typical gravure machine may have 8 or more cylinder stations, it is easy to appreciate that the perceived amount of colour achievable is extensive.

Here the gentleman in the picture is cleaning the print cylinders in the machine to remove the last colour ink used in preparation to print with a different colour. It is very important they remove all traces of the ink to avoid smudges on the next print.

We then finally went on to see the Heat Embossing Printed Vinyls machine.

The purpose of the machine is to convert a smooth plastic wall covering into a wall covering that has a third dimension. The start of the print process is with a smooth layer of PVC laid onto a backing layer, normally paper. Whilst at this stage the solvent based ink pigments adhere well to the PVC, it isn’t until the whole sheet has been heat embossed does it become ‘fused’ effectively making the inks a part of the coating itself. Sabrina mentioned that this is a very expensive process also and for a cylinder to have the embossed pattern put on can cost 10,000, which as you can imagine doesn’t get many small companies or Artist/Designers using this method.

We also looked at the Digital mimaki printer which are now printing a wallpaper of like the triple width of a standard one which looks really good. Also she showed us another printer that was completing colour tests to ensure the correct colours are in use for the wallpaper. Sabrina also mentioned how they had been delivered a brand new printer that could print to the widest width but print 3 of these at the same time, which is amazing.

This image above shows the mixing room where they mix the inks to achieve the correct colour needed for the client. 

This is how the wallpaper looks after being printed on the machines before taken to the last stage to be checked for defects, cut into 10 metre lengths and packaged by inserting the brand label and wrapped in cellophane for sale.

The image above shows the machine that puts the brand label onto the wallpaper rolls and then wrapped in cellophane.

I have really enjoyed this visit and have benefited greatly as I now have an idea how the industry works and also have the answers to things that I wondered. I had conversations with Sabrina about my final designs and mentioned that I would like to have wallpaper printed for my final product and I asked if it would be possible that they could maybe be the supplier of this, which she said yes and that she or another member of staff would help me through the stages of deciding what print techniques will be best to be used, which is fantastic news. Also if I have any questions she said to just email her. I also asked about work placements, Sabrina said that they do accept work placements but only 1 or 2 a year and the process of this is like applying for a job, sending a C.V, then interview. I also realised that work placements are extremely important as one girl thay took on as work placement showed herself whilst there and they offered her a job at the end of her degree. So it just shows that if you prove yourself good things can happen from it.  I am very satisfied with what I have learnt and I intend to apply for a work placement once I have updated my C.V.